Strong and ductile particulate reinforced ultrafine-grained metallic composites fabricated by flake powder metallurgy

A strategy of nanodispersion toughening is utilized to improve the ductility in micron particulate-reinforced aluminum composites, which involves increasing the strain hardening rate by introducing Al2O3 nanodispersoids into the ultrafine-grained (UFG) matrix using flake powder metallurgy. The as-fabricated B4C/UFG Al(Al2O3) exhibits simultaneous enhancement in tensile plasticity (8.9%) and strength (364 MPa) compared with its counterpart without the nanodispersoids. Thus, nanodispersion toughening promises an easy but effective pathway to optimize the strength and ductility of particulate-reinforced UFG metallic composites.